The Agamemnon of Aeschylus eBook

[Footnote 1: See my Four Stages of Greek Religion,
p. 47. Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy,
Chapter I. See also the fine pages on the Agamemnon
in the same writer’s Thucydides Mythistoricus,
pp. 144, ff. (E. Arnold 1907). G. M.]

To me this consideration actually increases the interest
and beauty of the Oresteia, because it increases
its greatness. The majestic art, the creative
genius, the instinctive eloquence of these plays—­that
eloquence which is the mere despair of a translator—­are
all devoted to the expression of something which Aeschylus
felt to be of tremendous import. It was not his
discovery; but it was a truth of which he had an intense
realization. It had become something which he
must with all his strength bring to expression before
he died, not in a spirit of self-assertion or of argument,
like a discoverer, but as one devoted to something
higher and greater than himself, in the spirit of
an interpreter or prophet.

AGAMEMNON

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

AGAMEMNON, son of Atreus and King of Argos and
Mycenae; Commander-in-Chief of the Greek armies in
the War against Troy.

CLYTEMNESTRA, daughter of Tyndareus, sister of
Helen; wife to Agamemnon.

AIGISTHOS, son of Thyestes, cousin and blood-enemy
to Agamemnon lover to Clytemnestra.

CASSANDRA, daughter of Priam, King of Troy, a prophetess;
now slave to Agamemnon.

A WATCHMAN.

A HERALD.

CHORUS of Argive Elders, faithful to AGAMEMNON.

CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE PLAY

MENELAUeS, brother to Agamemnon, husband of Helen,
and King of Sparta.
The two sons of Atreus are called the Atreidae.

HELEN, most beautiful of women; daughter of Tyndareus,
wife to MENELAUeS_; beloved and carried off by
Paris._

PARIS, son of Priam, King of Troy, lover of Helen.
Also called ALEXANDER.

PRIAM, the aged King of Troy.

The Greeks are also referred to as Achaians, Argives,
Danaans; Troy is also called Ilion.

The play was produced in the archonship if Philocles
(458 B.C.). The first prize was won by Aeschylus
with the “Agamemnon”, “Libation-Bearers”,
“Eumenides”, and the Satyr Play “Proteus".

THE AGAMEMNON

The Scene represents a space in front of the Palace
of Agamemnon in Argos, with an Altar of Zeus in the
centre and many other altars at the sides. On
a high terrace of the roof stands a WATCHMAN. It
is night.